Holloways Beach contains 1 preschool/kindergarten facility (25 places), while overall provision relative to the local child population appears limited compared to national benchmarks, and is below the Regional Qld average. With no LDC services observed in the area, only preschool, the ratio of children per place for the under 5 age group is 3.5 - placing the area among the bottom 20% nationally for supply per child. To meet the Regional Qld average 26 new places would be required (LDC+PSK to service the under 5 age group). Meanwhile, with projected population growth of 7.3% between now and 2041, and 17.5% in the under 5 age group in particular, not considering current depressed supply, 7 new places will be needed to maintain today's ratios. As well as this projected growth, other factors worth noting are lower than average employment performance.
Proximity analysis saw distances of local residents to their nearest child care centre being longer than typical nationally. Another finding worth noting is the low level of commercial activity in the area and assessment of local working populations which suggest many of the local population commute elsewhere for work with nearby services potentially taking some pressure off local child care centres.
5 school catchments intersect Holloways Beach (note; school catchment data provided for public schools only), in which a combined 2,909 children aged under 5 reside, served by 1,769 LDC and preschool places. The overall demand-to-supply ratio across these catchments is 1.6 children per place, with significant variance in this ratio. Meanwhile, the discrepancy in this ratio between Holloways Beach and the intersecting school catchments highlights the need for a catchment based approach for specific site assessments.